Daily Headlines
Congress and the administration to Wall Street's rescue - in advance
writers and journalists make statement condemning Paris killings.
Today the US public is divided between those who rely on the "mainstream media" and those who rely on the alternative Internet media. Only the latter have any clue as to what is really happening. The stories of Charlie Hebdo and the Tsarnaev brothers will be based not on facts but on the interests of government. As in the past, the government's interest will prevail over the facts.
This is the second part of my two part interview with Fritjof Capra-- the part that gets into how to apply the ideas of the Systems View of life.
The "demonization" of those receiving Disability payments is part of the broader overall GOP strategy of shifting money out of Social Security to pay for the Republicans' main priority -- tax cuts for corporations and multi-millionaires. Republicans are declaring war on middle class Americans, to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest.
Major General Michael Nagata leads a group delving into the psychological enigma of the Islamic State. But is it really such a great mystery when you consider whose invasion and occupation helped inspire the Islamic State? But, then, imperialist never talk about their debacles and what they've wrought. Better to look at it as a great mystery.
We brought 50 five-gallon jugs (1000 litres) to our friends in Detroit to draw attention to the human rights violations happening in Detroit and to call upon Pres. Obama to declare a public health crisis. There has been fervent opposition from many to the cut offs, including actor Mark Ruffalo. Hundreds of people attended a town hall meeting to testify how they lacked water for drinking, cooking, bathing and flushing toilets.
Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted an idea from Paul Ryan and other House Republicans that would justify their tax cuts for the wealthy by cooking the books and rigging how costs are counted in legislation. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has been working behind the scenes for months to try to change the way the Congressional Budget Office calculates the cost of legislation. Specifically, Ryan wants to force the CBO to use a discredited scoring method that will hide the real cost of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
By Steven Jonas
Could a Cuban Human Rights Organization be Outraged over Government's Pact with the U.S.? Well, Yes.
Could a Cuban Human Rights Organization be Outraged over Government's Pact with the U.S.? Well, Yes.
Rightists in both major U.S. political parties (which are actually one party with two faces) have criticized President Obama for engaging in this significant change in the relationship between our two nations, based on what they claim is Cuba's record on human rights.
If ever Americans sell their birthright, it will be for the promise of expediency and comfort delivered by way of blazingly fast Internet, cell phone signals that never drop a call, thermostats that keep us at the perfect temperature without our having to raise a finger, and entertainment that can be simultaneously streamed to our TVs, tablets and cell phones.
"A careful study of images taken by the NASA rover Curiosity has revealed intriguing similarities between ancient sedimentary rocks on Mars and structures shaped by microbes on Earth. The findings suggest, but do not prove, that life may have existed earlier on the Red Planet. On Earth, carpet-like colonies of microbes trap and rearrange sediments in shallow bodies of water such as lakes and coastal areas, forming distinctive features that fossilize over time. These structures, known as microbially-induced sedimentary structures, are found in shallow water settings all over the world and in ancient rocks spanning Earth's history. In a paper published last month in the journal Astrobiology, Noffke details the striking morphological similarities between Martian sedimentary structures in the Gillespie Lake outcrop (which is at most 3.7 billion years old) and microbial structures on Earth."
"The flutter of a single butterfly's wings may or may not be capable of causing tsunamis, but the loss of millions of butterflies is definitely being felt here in North America. Populations of the iconic and beloved monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus plexippus) have dropped an astonishing 96.5 percent over the past few decades, from an estimated 1 billion in the mid-1990s to just 35 million in early 2014. Conservation groups have been worrying about this decline for several years, and last week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) finally took notice. According to the agency, monarch butterflies may deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act. The FWS decision comes in response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, as well as monarch scientist Lincoln Brower..."
By Dominic Michaelis
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion can slow climate change.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) can slow climate change.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion can slow climate change.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) can slow climate change.
yikes it's cold. How cold, or how tropically warm? You tell us.
There is not enough cruelty in the world? We have to do this to animals for a "delicacy"?
Kepler Confirms Over 1,000 Exoplanets and Finds More Potentially Habitable Worlds.
Two US news channels duked it out last night and the one that was right is not the one we would have expected.
Next Generation American and Russian Submarines will have underwater drones and robots that will act as improved decoys. Russia's fifth generation nuclear submarines will be armed with robots and underwater drones in addition to conventional weaponry.
"If a person is deemed pathological, it means they have an obsessive or persistent tendency to some kind of untoward behavior such as lying or stealing that they cannot, and will not, stop regardless the consequences; to other people. Obviously, if a person's pathological behavior such as lying and unethical conduct, resulted in adverse or negative consequences to themselves, whatever the behavior was would not become a profitable compulsion. The reason the preponderance of Republicans are generally pathological liars is because they are never called to task, or suffer consequences, for their tendency to lie either for their campaign donors' benefit or their own political power."
Now that Conservatives have gerrymandered districts to successfully pervert elections, they're focusing upon eradicating neutrality and fairness... facts and data, their 'new math'. The GOP is proposing the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, implement 'dynamic scoring' to skew the reports released to promulgate their agenda of propaganda and false information: "conservative proposals misleadingly cheap and liberal proposals misleadingly costly..."
Comes to mind US Secretary of State John Kerry's prestige for his 'heroic' Swift Boat killing of a Vietnamese in his own beloved country during the holocaust the US committed in Vietnam. A wounded Vietnamese freedom fighter, who had been aiming a rocket launcher at the Swift Boat Kerry commanded ran. ["KERRY leaped ashore, pursued the man behind a hootch and killed him"] Did millionaire Kerry ever contact the family offer?
At the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Netanyahu warned: "Those who need to answer before a criminal court are the heads of the Palestinian Authority, who have forged an alliance with the war criminals of Hamas." One of his officials similarly noted that they had "quite a bit of ammunition" to use against Abbas.
The two party system is eroding away
At a moment when President Obama is seeking to convince Americans that the economy is finally back on track, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered a major address Wednesday in which she argued that average Americans are being left behind because Washington has failed them. In a speech to an AFL-CIO conference in Washington, Warren ticked off a list of upbeat indicators: Corporate profits and economic growth are up, the unemployment rate is down, inflation remains low and the stock market is booming. "But the overall picture doesn't tell us much about what's happening at ground level to tens of millions of Americans," she said. "Despite these cheery numbers, America's middle class is in deep trouble."
Mark Maguire argues that supporting press freedom by identifying with an Islamaphobic publication is a bad principle.
Senator Chuck Grassley on talks about the ongoing lack of transparency in the Boston Marathon bombing case and says with the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev now current, Law Enforcement agencies are gearing up to do battle and shift potential blame for the April 2013 attacks.
Utah's 'Ag-Gag' Law May Have Found First Legal Targets
Four animal rights activists from California are likely to be the first ever defendants charged under Utah's so-called "ag gag" law, which prohibits undercover investigations and recordings of animals in factory farms. Robert Penney, Sarah Jane Hardt, Harold Weiss, and Bryan Monell were charged in late September 2014 in Utah's Iron County court for agricultural operation interference--the "ag gag" law--and criminal trespassing on agricultural land.
Four animal rights activists from California are likely to be the first ever defendants charged under Utah's so-called "ag gag" law, which prohibits undercover investigations and recordings of animals in factory farms. Robert Penney, Sarah Jane Hardt, Harold Weiss, and Bryan Monell were charged in late September 2014 in Utah's Iron County court for agricultural operation interference--the "ag gag" law--and criminal trespassing on agricultural land.
Brooke decried the party's "southern strategy" courtship of segregationist Democrats as "not just morally wrong, but politically wrong." And he counseled that the conservative "programs and political philosophy that presently controls the Republican Party" were a barrier to attracting the votes of African-Americans and young people.
By Tom Engelhardt
Michael Klare: Perpetuating the Reign of Carbon
Around the world, carbon-based fuels are under attack. Increasingly grim economic pressures, growing popular resistance, and the efforts of government regulators have all shocked the energy industry. Oil prices are falling, colleges and universities are divesting from their carbon stocks, voters are instituting curbs on hydro-fracking, and delegates at the U.N.
Michael Klare: Perpetuating the Reign of Carbon
Around the world, carbon-based fuels are under attack. Increasingly grim economic pressures, growing popular resistance, and the efforts of government regulators have all shocked the energy industry. Oil prices are falling, colleges and universities are divesting from their carbon stocks, voters are instituting curbs on hydro-fracking, and delegates at the U.N.
Latest Articles
Syrian refugees have been denied the right to seek asylum and some have been forcibly returned to Syria by the Lebanese authorities and without even a grace period. The new unannounced changes led to families being separated. Again in violation of international refugee law.
Meeting Homer Again for the First Time (REVIEW ESSAY)
Adam Nicolson's new book WHY HOMER MATTERS (2014) is deeply informed and accessible. Nicolson characterizes the imagined Trojan War as a conflict between a heroic warrior culture dating back to the Bronze Age (the Greeks under Agamemnon) against the city-culture represented by the Trojans. But Nicolson brings this imagined conflict to new life by likening the loose Greek confederation of forces to street gangs today.
Adam Nicolson's new book WHY HOMER MATTERS (2014) is deeply informed and accessible. Nicolson characterizes the imagined Trojan War as a conflict between a heroic warrior culture dating back to the Bronze Age (the Greeks under Agamemnon) against the city-culture represented by the Trojans. But Nicolson brings this imagined conflict to new life by likening the loose Greek confederation of forces to street gangs today.
A review of the Marisol exhibit at El Museo del Barrio in New York City.
Subsidizing Contractor Misconduct
Last summer, to help put an end to these kinds of mistreatment, President Barack Obama signed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order. Here's why the executive order could help workers: Every year, the federal government awards a fortune in contracts for everything from defense systems to administrative services to companies that employ an estimated one in five American workers.
Last summer, to help put an end to these kinds of mistreatment, President Barack Obama signed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order. Here's why the executive order could help workers: Every year, the federal government awards a fortune in contracts for everything from defense systems to administrative services to companies that employ an estimated one in five American workers.
They like photogenic misery, inarticulate is OK, but dumb is best...
Mario Cuomo: Governor of Mass Incarceration
Mario Cuomo will lionized in the mainstream media as a champion of liberal causes. What most will ignore is his role as a Governor who built more prisons than any in New York State's history.
Mario Cuomo will lionized in the mainstream media as a champion of liberal causes. What most will ignore is his role as a Governor who built more prisons than any in New York State's history.
The background to today's killing, by armed Islamist gunmen, of twelve employees of a prominent French satirical weekly.
Your Inner Life Elevates Your Outer Life
Think positive, act positive, feel positive and speak positively in everything you do every day. That means to catch yourself if you fall into negative thoughts or actions stemming from anything that happens to you. Once you climb onto the "positive" thought train, your inner life leads to your outer expression in positive ways.
Think positive, act positive, feel positive and speak positively in everything you do every day. That means to catch yourself if you fall into negative thoughts or actions stemming from anything that happens to you. Once you climb onto the "positive" thought train, your inner life leads to your outer expression in positive ways.
Greece and the troika (the International Monetary Fund, the EU, and the European Central Bank) are in a dangerous game of chicken. The Greeks have been threatened with a "Cyprus-Style prolonged bank holiday" if they "vote wrong." But they have been bullied for too long and are saying "no more."
Along with the unresolved disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, the downing of the same airline's flight MH17 over the Ukraine was no less a tragedy, albeit of a different kind. Australian writer Greg Maybury looks back at this shocking event, remembers the victims and their families, reflects on the geopolitical fallout, and considers the global implications going into 2015.
Washington's plan to push down oil prices (to hurt the Russian economy) might have made sense on a short-term basis (to shock Putin into submission) but as a long-term strategy, it's nuts. And what's even crazier, is that Obama has decided to double-down on the same wacky plan even though Putin hasn't given an inch.
Fox News ignored the Florida scene of grisly, domestic violence. Apparently, without a Muslim suspect under arrest for the beheading, Fox News wasn't interested. However, in late September 2014, Fox News became almost singularly obsessed with the gruesome work-place beheading in Moore, Oklahoma by a recent Muslim convert, Alton Nolen.
The New York Times keeps insisting that last year's Ukrainian coup wasn't a coup and anyone who thinks so lives inside "the Russian propaganda bubble." But a slanted Times "investigation" shows that the newspaper remains lost inside the U.S. government's "propaganda bubble," writes Robert Parry.
Protesting NY cops, refusing to ticket or arrest people for minor crimes, have not caused a wave of big crimes, showing their own uselessness. If they were fired now for insubordination, as they should be, it would free up hundreds of millions of dollars for better use, writes TCBH! journalist Dave Lindorff
Finding Common Ground Between Progressives and Business; defining progressive values and matching them to the interests of big and small business is not only doable, it's essential.
A timely return to James Baldwin's "The Dungeon Shook," from The Fire Next Time.
There is our most vexing question: if progressives can't gain ground during today's hard times, full of failures at home and abroad, then when? If progressives don't gain when the right lurches between disgrace and farce, gloating with lies that scandalize reality, then when? Bright spots surface, but what notable change, especially on income distribution, speaks to unified progressive activism?
Stop the NYPD Coup and Create the Police-Community Relationship We Want to See Do the police serve the city or are they a law unto themselves? This is an issue of concern throughout the country but it has come into crisp focus in New York.
Engelhardt: Feeling Insecure in 2015
From the point of view of the national security state, each failure, each little disaster, acts as another shot of fear in the American body politic, and the response to failure is predictable: never less of what doesn't work, but more. More money, more bodies hired, more new outfits formed, more elaborate defenses, more offensive weaponry.
From the point of view of the national security state, each failure, each little disaster, acts as another shot of fear in the American body politic, and the response to failure is predictable: never less of what doesn't work, but more. More money, more bodies hired, more new outfits formed, more elaborate defenses, more offensive weaponry.
The trial of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is set to go ahead Monday, despite potential jurors in the case openly admitting to bias towards the defendant, some calling for him to face 'the electric chair'.
the GE chestnut has been engineered with foreign DNA from wheat, a process which damages the genome and leads to numerous mutations. This means the engineered tree will likely have unanticipated and unpredictable consequences when released into a forest ecosystem. As we've seen time and again with GMO crops, these unanticipated consequences can be very damaging to biodiversity and wildlife, not to mention people.
The TPP is a Trojan horse in a global race to the bottom, giving big corporations and Wall Street banks a way to eliminate any and all laws and regulations that get in the way of their profits. The Trans Pacific Partnership is the wrong remedy to the wrong problem. Any way you look at it, it's just plain wrong.
The mainstream U.S. news media sometimes rallies to the defense of a reporter who is pressured to reveal a source but not so much for the brave whistleblower who is the target of government retaliation. Such is the case for ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, writes Norman Solomon.
My Dream of Equality
A straight white man's dream for LGBT marriage equality. This piece begins with a genuine dream followed by the dreamer's interpretation.
A straight white man's dream for LGBT marriage equality. This piece begins with a genuine dream followed by the dreamer's interpretation.
The Keystone Pipeline will move "up to 830,000 barrels" each day of Canadian tar sands oil to a U.S. port so it can be sold to China and elsewhere. It uses eminent domain to seize land from ranchers, and crosses sacred Native American land. It creates only 35 permanent U.S. jobs.
British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett have changed how the world thinks about inequality -- and they have plenty more insights to share.
The unhappy events of the last several weeks triggered by the Grand Jury's decision in the Eric Garner case -- in which the police were acquitted of homicide -- and the fatal shooting of two police officers in Brooklyn last month brought to mind another city in another part of the world plunged into chaos.
This article describes how US foreign policy has destroyed a good portion of the Middle East and is a preview of more destruction to come in the future.
Fukushima update 1-5-15
While the fuel rods are out of the pool atop Unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi, Units 1, 2, 3 are still too hot to approach, and the groundwater problem is intractable, and getting worse. Please sign the two petitions: click here click here
While the fuel rods are out of the pool atop Unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi, Units 1, 2, 3 are still too hot to approach, and the groundwater problem is intractable, and getting worse. Please sign the two petitions: click here click here
How Bloomberg 'News' Lies
understanding how propaganda is done
understanding how propaganda is done
Niall Ferguson on Kissinger's World Order [Part Two]
Part Two of a review of Niall Ferguson's TLS article on Henry Kissinger's views on foreign policy.
Part Two of a review of Niall Ferguson's TLS article on Henry Kissinger's views on foreign policy.
Apparently the government doesn't like when people use seed banks to save and trade their crops.
No lover of democracy can hate the Trans-Pacific Partnership enough. While the reasons to detest TPP--and above all TPP fast track--are abundant, no prior article has captured its full loathsomeness by pinpointing its deep political significance. Nothing short, that is, of rapidly streamlining the slow, ongoing political castration of the U.S. public. Metaphorically speaking, a project worthy of Dr. Mengele.
Homelessness is increasing all over America but the numbers from New York are shockingly high compared to most of the US Empire's failing cities. This is the Dickensian nightmare that litters America, the stark reality of American capitalism and it only promises to get worse under the tutelage of banksters, media sophists, philanthro-pirates and their supplicant coin-operated politicians.
Presidents Are Gods
A former Governor of Virginia is expected to be sentenced to a long stay in prison. The same fate has befallen governors in states across the United States, including in nearby Maryland, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
A former Governor of Virginia is expected to be sentenced to a long stay in prison. The same fate has befallen governors in states across the United States, including in nearby Maryland, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
A slave has only external value. A slave is a thing. This is what we have done to animals. Animals are property. Animal welfare laws cannot work because they are based on balancing the interests of humans and nonhumans. As long as animals are chattel property the animal owners win.
For folks like Timothy Geithner it is a big thing to boast about the profit the government made on the TARP. We got more of this children's story in the NYT yesterday in an article reporting on the end of the TARP. It is worth understanding the meaning of profit in this context.
Leelah Alcorn's suicide exposed many things - especially the conditions of "unconditional" love.
Freedom of the press depends on media outlets being able to provide the public with information about powerful people and institutions that those powerful people and institutions don't want publicized. If whistleblowing is shut down, freedom of the press suffers. Politically and legally, the situation with Risen in the Sterling trial is apt to be a hugely important test case that will cast a long shadow for the future.
Name any nat'l problem & issue in contemporary America where a real solution has been carried out? From health care, gun control to the environment among the issues facing America real solutions are found wanting. Solutions are known but big money-corporate, individual, special interest & dark money from anonymous sources control the entire electoral, political process & agenda preventing any real solutions from being enacted.
The Philly Inquirer is the latest example of the demise of US journalism, with a puff piece on Obama's appointee to head a study of police violence, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, writes TCBH! journalist Dave Lindorff
The real story behind "Argo"
Latest Polls
Do something or nothing about tax havens.
Best News Links from the Web
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has confirmed the Palestinians will formally become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1 and the court's registrar said on Wednesday that jurisdiction would date back to June 13, 2014. This means the court's prosecutor could investigate the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in July and August 2014, during which more than 2,100 Palestinians, 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.
French police officials identified three men as suspects in a deadly attack against newspaper offices that killed 12 people and shook the nation on Wednesday. Two officials named the suspects as Frenchmen Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, who are brothers and in their early 30s, as well as 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, whose nationality wasn't immediately clear. Masked gunmen stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo, which caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, methodically killing 12 people, including the editor, before escaping in a car. It was France's deadliest terrorist attack in half a century.
As Australia Battles Worst Wildfires in Decades, Call for Abbott to Act on Climate
Firefighters in southern Australia continued to battle on Tuesday what are said to be the nation's worst wildfires in decades. Efforts to contain the fires, which have raged for days, come as Australia's Bureau of Meteorology stated that 2014 marked the country's third-warmest calendar year since records began in 1910.
Firefighters in southern Australia continued to battle on Tuesday what are said to be the nation's worst wildfires in decades. Efforts to contain the fires, which have raged for days, come as Australia's Bureau of Meteorology stated that 2014 marked the country's third-warmest calendar year since records began in 1910.
Killing is a Joke, according to "our" government
U.S. military officials acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that the more than 1,600 bombings launched on Iraq and Syria by the U.S. and allies over the past five months may have led to "a few" civilian casualties. Analysts, however, say that such an admission is not only an undercounting of civilian deaths and wounds from airstrikes, but a far cry from the reckoning needed to account for the true human cost of U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.
U.S. military officials acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that the more than 1,600 bombings launched on Iraq and Syria by the U.S. and allies over the past five months may have led to "a few" civilian casualties. Analysts, however, say that such an admission is not only an undercounting of civilian deaths and wounds from airstrikes, but a far cry from the reckoning needed to account for the true human cost of U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.
Social Insecurity Coming Your Way (particularly if you get social security that you worked for)
An attack by the Republican Party on the nation's Social Security program took less than one full working day. Included in a new set of rules passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday was a new measure making it more difficult to move funds between separate accounts maintained by the Social Security Administration. A seemingly technical provision on the surface, critics says it puts millions of disabled and elderly Americans at risk and sets the stage for further attacks aimed at the wider program. "The GOP is inventing a Social Security crisis that will threaten benefits for millions and put our most vulnerable at risk." --Sen. Warren
An attack by the Republican Party on the nation's Social Security program took less than one full working day. Included in a new set of rules passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday was a new measure making it more difficult to move funds between separate accounts maintained by the Social Security Administration. A seemingly technical provision on the surface, critics says it puts millions of disabled and elderly Americans at risk and sets the stage for further attacks aimed at the wider program. "The GOP is inventing a Social Security crisis that will threaten benefits for millions and put our most vulnerable at risk." --Sen. Warren
Piss on You Economics at Your Doorstep
A seemingly arcane rule change passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday night signals that a new wave of tax cuts for the wealthy and what has long been criticized as "voodoo economics" will again be in vogue as the new Republican-controlled Congress sets the agenda in the new session. Along with a host of other rules changes that will govern procedural issues in the House over the next two years, at issue here is a rule that will force both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Congressional Joint Committe on Taxation (JCT), the two nonpartisan groups tasked with scoring the economic impacts of proposed legislation, to use projection models that include what is called "dynamic scoring."
A seemingly arcane rule change passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday night signals that a new wave of tax cuts for the wealthy and what has long been criticized as "voodoo economics" will again be in vogue as the new Republican-controlled Congress sets the agenda in the new session. Along with a host of other rules changes that will govern procedural issues in the House over the next two years, at issue here is a rule that will force both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Congressional Joint Committe on Taxation (JCT), the two nonpartisan groups tasked with scoring the economic impacts of proposed legislation, to use projection models that include what is called "dynamic scoring."
The House of Representatives expects to vote Wednesday on legislation retooling a series of financial regulations, an early sign that Republican leaders will attack President Barack Obama's Wall Street reforms this year. Scaling back reforms including the so-called Volcker rule on banks is a top Republican priority as stated on the website of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.
House Republicans Change Rules on Calculating Economic Impact of Bills - By JONATHAN WEISMAN; NYTimes
"The House, on Tuesday, approved an obscure but significant rule change requiring the economic effects of legislation to be included in a bill's official cost to the Treasury. The move is widely seen as a way for Republican leaders to set ground rules for an ambitious overhaul of the entire United States tax code" ... Opponents said the rule change would invite politicized scorekeeping, further tilt policy to benefit the rich, and expand the budget deficit. Shaun Donovan, the White House budget director, implored the House not to "upend the level playing field that has existed for decades" and "call into question the accuracy, consistency and fairness" of congressional budget estimates."..."The models are too simplistic and the range of the possible outcomes so great that it opens the process to too much in the way of political intuitions." "Other changes were more partisan....
"The House, on Tuesday, approved an obscure but significant rule change requiring the economic effects of legislation to be included in a bill's official cost to the Treasury. The move is widely seen as a way for Republican leaders to set ground rules for an ambitious overhaul of the entire United States tax code" ... Opponents said the rule change would invite politicized scorekeeping, further tilt policy to benefit the rich, and expand the budget deficit. Shaun Donovan, the White House budget director, implored the House not to "upend the level playing field that has existed for decades" and "call into question the accuracy, consistency and fairness" of congressional budget estimates."..."The models are too simplistic and the range of the possible outcomes so great that it opens the process to too much in the way of political intuitions." "Other changes were more partisan....
This is one of the best articles on war and warriors I've read. Not only are certain factions of this country convincing folks to vote against their own self-interest, they are convincing citizens to sacrifice their children and themselves for ambiguity and lies, the purported opposite of Democracy and Christianity which have had "truth" as foundations. We have recently been in situations no less dire than the Viet Nam era and Artists are making jingoistic BS -- shame on us. I haven't seen the Eastwood movie. It has received good reviews. However, is it an anti-war movie?
Has the election campaign mantra "It's the economy, stupid" outlived its usefulness? - The term economy is a generality, having different meanings to different people, e.g. jobs to the 98% but the stock market to Steve Forbes and the 2%. - "It's the economy, stupid" can be used can be used by candidates pandering to the 2% as well as candidates trying to appeal to the 98%, however those among the 98% without a good job feel left behind as the stock market makes new highs, and experience the psychological phenomenon of "learned helplessness" , become apathetic and less likely to vote. - After 22 years of use "It's the economy, stupid" has yielded greatest decrease in mid-term year voter turnout versus the previous Presidential election (38.3%), except for during WWII, i.e. 1942 (45.7%). - Washington: Wake-up to The All Out War for Good Jobs! "It's Domestic Job Growth, Stupid"
The state of American society as 2015 begins
As the New Year begins, the social crisis gripping tens of millions of working people in the United States is worsening. Hunger, poverty and long-term joblessness remain at the highest levels in decades, while vital social services continue to be slashed. As a result of the Corporate Media Propagandists (CMP)no one would never know this. The official discourse is dominated by the supposed revival of the American economy, characterized by record corporate profits and stock prices. The fact that the great majority of the population finds it increasingly difficult to make ends meet finds no reflection in the media or official politics.
As the New Year begins, the social crisis gripping tens of millions of working people in the United States is worsening. Hunger, poverty and long-term joblessness remain at the highest levels in decades, while vital social services continue to be slashed. As a result of the Corporate Media Propagandists (CMP)no one would never know this. The official discourse is dominated by the supposed revival of the American economy, characterized by record corporate profits and stock prices. The fact that the great majority of the population finds it increasingly difficult to make ends meet finds no reflection in the media or official politics.
A new NASA-led study shows that tropical forests may be absorbing far more carbon dioxide than many scientists thought, in response to rising atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas. The study estimates that tropical forests absorb 1.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide out of a total global absorption of 2.5 billion--more than is absorbed by forests in Canada, Siberia and other northern regions, called boreal forests. "This is good news, because uptake in boreal forests is already slowing, while tropical forests may continue to take up carbon for many years," said David Schimel of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Forests and other land vegetation currently remove up to 30 percent of human carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere during photosynthesis. If the rate of absorption were to slow down, the rate of global warming would speed up in return.
Astronomers have discovered eight new exoplanets that may be capable of supporting life as we know it, including what they say are the two most Earthlike alien worlds yet found. All eight newfound alien planets appear to orbit in their parent stars' habitable zone -- that just-right range of distances that may allow liquid water to exist on a world's surface -- and all of them are relatively small, researchers said. "We don't know for sure whether any of the planets in our sample are truly habitable," co-author David Kipping, also of the CfA, said in the same statement. "All we can say is that they're promising candidates." Such hedging is unavoidable at this point, because researchers just don't have enough information. For starters, there's the uncertainty about the planets' composition, as evidenced by the estimated rockiness probabilities.
Astronomers have proved that they can accurately tell the age of a star from how fast it is spinning. We know that stars slow down over time, but until recently there was little data to support exact calculations. For the first time, a US team has now measured the spin speed of stars that are more than one billion years old - and it matches what they predicted. Establishing the age of stars is a central question in astronomy - much like dating fossils is crucial to studying evolution. This method applies to "cool stars" - suns about the size of our own, or smaller. These are the most common stars in our galaxy and they also last for a long time. "
